South Cook News

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau is criticizing Cook County for releasing criminals back onto the streets after Orland Park Police recently arrested Nickolas Burch, termed a "habitual criminal" on federal parole for armed robbery and attempted murder at the time of his arrest in the city.

Fox 32 reported the arrest of Burch and Kelly Turner in the parking lot of Orland Square Mall as authorities were called to investigate a suspicious vehicle with a gun inside, drawing the ire of Pekau, who is running for Congress. He took to social media to offer a rebuke of crime efforts in the Windy City.  

“85% of the criminals we arrest in Orland Park are previous felons and/or are out on bail, and we can thank Cook County for nearly every single one of them come,” Pekau said in a Feb. 15 Facebook post. “The arrest we made of Nickolas Burch, who one of our officers called one of the ‘baddest guys’ he ever arrested, was no different. You ask the average person what will happen if you let a career criminal with a long history of violent crime back onto the streets, they’ll tell you it’s obvious—they’ll commit another violent crime.”

According to Fox 32, police approached the vehicle outside the mall after Burch, Turner and a juvenile had entered the car. They asked the trio to exit the vehicle, according to the report, but Burch and Turner didn’t follow directions. The pair had given the juvenile a fanny pack and told her to leave. Police confiscated the fanny pack and found a loaded gun inside. Burch, the Fox 32 report noted, is on parole and electronic monitoring for armed robbery and attempted murder and he also is now facing additional charges of being an armed habitual criminal and misdemeanor resisting/obstruction. 

Burch has a long history of violent criminal activity, according to CWB Chicago, which reported that he punched a Chicago man and stole his phone in 2008, resulting in a 139-day sentence. Two months later, he was charged with attempted murder and received a six-year sentence, only to be paroled in 2011, according to CWB Chicago, which also noted within two months of that parole, he was in trouble again after fleeing from police with a gun. By 2016, CWB Chicago noted that he was a three-time convicted felon in hot water again after being charged with armed robbery, aggravated battery-firearm and two counts of aggravated battery of a police officer after he shot a Lakeview man. 

While Chicagocitywire.com reports that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has dropped all charges against 30% of felony defendants, local officials like Pekau are calling out the actions. The website, citing a Daily Mail report, noted that during her first three years in office, Foxx and her staff have dismissed felony charges in some 25,000 cases.